Sub-committee of the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee has raised questions whether senior officials of Maldives Police Service can continue to remain in their posts while the probe into police welfare company POLCO proceeds.
Sub-committee of the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee has raised questions whether senior officials of Maldives Police Service can continue to remain in their posts while the probe into corruption within the police welfare company POLCO proceeds, stating that it has come to their notice that there is significant involvement of senior officials in the case.
In yesterday's committee meeting, Chair and Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim said that the audit report indicates that individuals in positions such as Assistant Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner were also involved in POLCO corruption.
"There are 16 important events in the Auditor General's report's Chart 1. They have involvement in some stages of this. I believe we need to decide whether they will remain in their posts while we proceed with this," Nazim said.
According to the report on the Police flats, the project agreement was changed on three occasions, MVR 122 million was added to project costs, and the date of completion of the project was extended to 54 months. Initially, the project was awarded to Noomadi company for MVR 580 million, to be completed in two years. However, at the time of completion, a total of MVR 1 billion had been spent on the project.
Nazim said that as the case proceeds, additional information and documents have been received from a whistleblower from within the police service. As per this, POLCO's corruption is not solely within the housing project, but is more extensive, including procurement of goods and services.
"It cited a report sent to then Commissioner of Police. We want to see how much we are bound through the Whistleblower Act as well. As it is a whistleblower document, it has to be handled in a different manner," Nazim said.
The rest of Nazim's statements were muted. Parliament Secretariat said that this was because 'of the record' statements were being made. Due to this, the final decisions made by the committee are not known.
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